The U.S. Is Pressing Mexico to Allow U.S. Forces to Fight Cartels

The United States is escalating pressure on the Mexican government to permit the U.S. military to target Fentanyl labs, according to American officials.White powder, purportedly finished Fentanyl, sitting on a table in a makeshift lab operated by the Sinaloa Cartel.Credit...Meridith Kohut for The New York TimesThe U.S. Is Pressing Mexico to Allow U.S. Forces to Fight CartelsThe United States is escalating pressure on the Mexican government to permit the U.S. military to target Fentanyl labs, according to American officials.White powder, purportedly finished Fentanyl, sitting on a table in a makeshift lab operated by the Sinaloa Cartel.Credit...Meridith Kohut for The New York TimesSKIP Jan. 15, 2026The United States is intensifying pressure on Mexico to allow U.S. military forces to conduct joint operations to dismantle Fentanyl labs inside the country, according to American officials.The push comes as President Trump presses on the Mexican government to grant the United States a larger role in the battle against drug cartels that produce Fentanyl and smuggle it into the United States.The proposal was first raised early last year and then largely dropped, officials said. But the request was renewed after U.S. forces captured President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela on Jan. 3 and has involved the highest levels of government, including the White House, according to multiple officials.U.S. officials want American forces — either Special Operation troops or C.I.A. officers — to accompany Mexican soldiers on raids on suspected Fentanyl labs, according to American officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic issues and military planning. Such joint operations would be a significant expansion of the United States’ role in Mexico, and one that the Mexican government has so far adamantly opposed.The country’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has repeatedly said that the two nations would work together to fight the cartels but that her government rejected the U.S.’s proposal of sending American troops across the border.Mr. Trump “generally insists on the participation of U.S. forces,” she said in a news conference shortly after speaking with Mr. Trump on the phone Monday morning. “We always say that it is not necessary,” she said, adding, “he was receptive, listened, gave his opinion, and we agreed to continue working” together.ImageMembers of the Mexican Army patrolling the streets last year in Michoacán state, where cartels are using drones, I.E.D.s and other weapons of war.Credit...Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York TimesThe White House declined to comment. But last week, Mr. Trump told Fox News that more needed to be done in Mexico to counter the drug cartels.“We’ve knocked out 97 percent of the drugs coming in by water, and we are going to start now hitting land, with regard to the cartels,” he said, specifically those in Mexico.Instead of joint operations, Mexican officials offered counter proposals this month, including increased information sharing and for the United States to play a greater role inside command centers, according to a person familiar with the matter. U.S. advisers are already in Mexican military command posts, according to American officials, sharing intelligence to help Mexican forces in their antidrug operations.Mexican officials are under pressure to reach an agreement, as some American officials would like to see the U.S. military or C.I.A. conduct drone strikes against suspected drug labs, a violation of Mexican sovereignty that would significantly weaken the government.But Fentanyl labs are notoriously difficult to find and destroy, U.S. officials say, and Washington is still developing tools to trace the drug as it is being produced. The labs emit less chemical traces than meth labs — which can be detected by drones — and are often cooked in urban areas with the rudimentary tools found in a family kitchen, according to current and former officials. Meth and cocaine labs, however, need much larger spaces, making them easier to detect.Under the Biden administration, the C.I.A. began carrying out secret drone flights over Mexico to identify possible locations of Fentanyl labs, an operation that has expanded since Mr. Trump took office.The drones are used both to find labs and track precursor chemicals as they arrive in Mexican seaports and then transported to their destinations, according to an American official briefed on the operation.ImagePolice officers secure the perimeter of a clandestine Fentanyl lab that the Sinaloa Cartel was suspected of operating in 2024 in Lomas del Valle, Mexico.Credit...Meridith Kohut for The New York TimesThat intelligence is currently handed off to Mexican military units, many of which have been trained by American Special Operation forces. Mexican troops then plan and execute the raids to take out the labs.Under Washington’s new proposal, American forces would participate in the raids with Mexican forces in the lead, commanding the mission and making key decisions, according to people familiar with the talks, including American officials. But U.S. forces would be in support, providing intelligence and advice to frontline Mexican troops.Asked about the planning for Mexico, the Defense Department said in a statement that it “stands ready to execute the orders of the commander-in chief at any time and in any place.”A spokeswoman for the C.I.A. declined to comment.The success of this month’s Venezuela raid seems to have emboldened the Trump administration. Soon after that operation, Mr. Trump said regime change in Cuba was next and resurrected demands that Washington take control of Greenland.While Washington has focused on Mr. Maduro and Venezuela as a main source of the drugs smuggled into the United States, the South American country in fact plays a minor role in the illicit trade. The majority of drugs smuggled into the United States come through the 2,000-mile border it shares with Mexico.Fentanyl is also responsible for the bulk of overdose deaths in the United States, and is by far the most dangerous street drug.Last year, the White House designated Fentanyl as a “weapon of mass destruction” and several Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.The Trump administration started pushing for U.S. forces inside Mexico shortly after coming to power last year, but Mexican officials have consistently rejected those proposals, demanding that Washington respect their sovereignty.ImageA man smoking Fentanyl at an encampment on the side of a freeway in El Cajon, Calif.“We have highly trained army units and special forces,” Mexico’s security chief, Omar García Harfuch, said in an interview last month. “What would they be needed for?” he added, referring to U.S. forces. “What we need is information.”American troops operating inside Mexico is a particularly fraught issue, considering the shared history — the United States has invaded Mexico nearly a dozen times and launched several land grabs that included Texas and California.That deep distrust has gradually diminished over the last three decades, with Mexico working more closely with American forces and sharing more intelligence, particularly with agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration. Mr. Harfuch said that fewer than several hundred U.S. security personnel are in Mexico, and that all are unarmed and all are approved by Mexican officials.D.E.A. agents in Mexico mostly build cases with Mexican forces, and are barred from participating in antidrug ground operations. But former American officials who have worked with Mexican forces say that if Mr. Trump pushes too far that cooperation could break down.Ms. Sheinbaum is in a precarious situation. If she accepts Washington’s demands for joint operations with U.S. forces, she could see a revolt within her own political party, a leftist organization that harbors deep suspicion of the United States.But if the Trump administration decides to launch a unilateral military strike inside Mexico without the Mexican leader’s knowledge, she could rapidly lose support within her ruling party and among Mexican voters.The proposal for joint operations also runs up against recent Mexican laws that restrict foreign troops on Mexican soil, including a constitutional amendment passed last year.Soon after the attack in Venezuela, the Mexican Senate delayed its Jan. 5 vote to allow U.S. Navy special forces into Mexico for joint training exercises beginning later this month. The senate is required under the country’s constitution to grant approval for the entry of foreign troops.Ms. Sheinbaum, who had originally requested the entry of the U.S. troops, denied last week that the delay was related to the Venezuela attack, saying it was because the Senate was not yet in session, but a Mexican senator said the postponement was indeed because of the U.S. action.Ms. Sheinbaum has tapped Mr. Harfuch to go harder on the cartels since coming to power in late 2024. Since then, Mexico has deployed hundreds of forces to the state of Sinaloa to counter the Sinaloa Cartel, the world’s largest distributor of Fentanyl, leading to high-profile arrests and a splintering and weakening of the drug organization.The government says it is arresting cartel members and destroying drug labs at nearly four times the rate of the previous government.“We’re not saying the problem is solved,” Mr. Harfuch said. But, he added, “what we’re doing is hitting the criminal structure at the bottom, in the middle and at the top.”Jack Nicas and James Wagner contributed reporting from Mexico City and Edward Wong from Washington, D.C.Maria Abi-Habib is an investigative correspondent reporting on Latin America and is based in Mexico City.Julian E. Barnes covers the U.S. intelligence agencies and international security matters for The Times. He has written about security issues for more than two decades.Eric Schmitt is a national security correspondent for The Times. He has reported on U.S. military affairs and counterterrorism for more than three decades.Tyler Pager is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.SKIP